Deep in the blue sea
by Charmatica
Summary: What if mermaids that you've heard of weren't the only fish-creastures that looked human, but there were more, way more? Mermaid! Free AU. Focus on the Matsuoka Family in the beginning before the others come in.
1. Chapter 1: Birth of a prince

Everyone has known about the reef, and it's mysterious creatures, right? Everyone has also heard of the tales of mermaids, or fish-people, lurking deep in the oceans. You often hear they're not very big, but human-sized, with colorful fish-like tails, and some can be very beautiful and kind.

All those legends are mostly based on misconceptions. Mermaids are the casual creatures, but even deeper down in the ocean, more specifically, the deep sea outside of Japan, there were dangerous creatures living there. Not very tiny either. Well, it depended on what creature you were. If you were a whale-type of sea creature, you could range from that of a mini whale to that of a big blue whale. Most of these creatures lived in harmony with each other. The dolphin types lived peacefully and played with the seal types, and the whales were often seen around the middle of the ocean, resting their fins and getting their fins dried before calmly splashing water on their scaled underparts.

We, however, are not gonna focus on the whales, dolphins, or even the smallest types of fish-people with their tails in the colors of the rainbow. We'll focus deeper down, at the base of the entire reef, at the sand, miles deep, where the sharks lived.

The shark-types were a very dangerous breed, them all having dangerously sharp teeth, and sizes changing to that of a leopard shark to the great Megalodon, which were the rulers of the entire shark family. Some types fought each other, but mostly kept to themselves. The small children were always told to keep to their types, and not even associate with the biggest ones, and the big ones were raised to know they were the rulers-to-be one day.

The greatest shark though, the Megalodon family's oldest shark-man, Toraichi, was swimming nervously around in circles, as good as he could, due to his size. To be such a big shark, he was a very kind-hearted man, and he held great love to his wife, a great white-type female he had wed just a couple of years earlier. She was in a room, the one he currently was slowly circling outside, giving birth to Toraichi's heir, and first-born.

Usually, the birth of a megalodon-type was like the birth of a royal child, even though there were no "kings" in the clans. It was just a great thing, as they were the most dangerous ones, and the biggest ones of the sea. It's just that this birth was extra special, as Toraichi has been the last sighted Megalodon-type in years, due to the Humans on land have been chasing his breed for years. It's told that he is the absolute last, and so everyone hopes for the new child to be of his breed, and wants to see it first to celebrate it.

Toraichi's wife was getting weak in the delivery hall. She was in immense pain, and she barely could swim around, and thus was lying down, not something a lot of shark women did during birth. This seemed to be a good sign that it was indeed a Megalodon being born. But the woman was in a too large pain, and the young Reef shark-type women in thwere were worried the magenta-haired woman would not survive the birth. It happened often that shark women died during birth, but losing the wife of the great Megalodon would be a devastation, as it meant he had to find a new wife if this child was not his breed.

The woman let out a loud shout, which was just seen by a lot of bubbles leaving her mouth, as that was how much in pain she was, she couldn't make a sound, but one of the reef-women noticed something was finally leaving the woman's body. Swimming forward to catch the little one before it hurt itself, she grabbed onto the baby gently, and helped the pained mother push out the last of her little child. a long, grey and white tail came out, and at first, they immediately thought it was a megalodon-type, and immediately swam out of the room to find the father, who was now finally staying still, as he had heard the sound of the coral doors open.

"Torichi, great Megalodon, This is your child, it did become one of yours!" the woman smiled brightly and handed the shark-baby to the proud father. The first thing the giant man saw was that the child had his mother's hair color, magenta and short, but the second he saw was that it was a boy, he smiled even brighter. He looked into the room, where his wife was lying on the ground, panting, and looking like she just had fought to the death, blood pouring out of her, but she still smiled at him.

Swimming to her, Toraichi rested the baby in her arms as she smiled exhausted at him, then the father of her son. The black-haired shark smiled at them both before frowning. "What will you name him?" He asked, petting the small head, seeing the baby open it's eyes, the same red eyes as his mother's looked back at him, and he smiled again.

"Rin." the great white woman said top him, smiling just at her little baby shark as she immediately started nursing him. The father smiled even more then, ignoring that that usually was seen as a feminine name. That's when he saw the similarities of his wife's and his son's tails. Both the same colors and textures. Rin wasn't a megalodon, but a great white, like his mother. Toraichi smiled yet again, and leaned in to kiss the boy on top of the pink head.

"I don't care that you didn't become like me, I'm just happy you and your mother is alright.. Rin."


	2. Chapter 2: Danger ahead

The years went by, and the shark-types graldly accepted their new addition, and it wasn't long after, that the Megalodon family got another addition to the family, a small, healthy great white-type female child. LIke with Rin, the mother named her a name fit the opposite gender, Gou, and just like her brother, she had not carried on her father's hair or eyes, but instead more her reddish hair with pride and her red eyes gleamed of joy and happiness.

almost ten years later, The siblings swam around in the reef, the other shark-types children not daring to play with them due to their status, but Rin still had a smile on his face as he made friends with some of the few great-white type children that they were, which almost only included him, Gou and about four other children. He didn't mind, but Gou sure did. Consdidering the was the smallest one of them all, she was oft5en left out, but Rin always made sure she could at least be part of the games.

The proud parents still were concerned everytime Gou fled from the gamed, crying to them about being teased, and Rin was one day brought in to his father to discuss it. Toraichi never allowed misbehavings from asny of his children, but he even less allowed any of them to be bullied, but as he could't exactly go to the children and scare them with his size, he just had to give Rin a talk about this, and see if he could do SOMETHING for his sweet sister.

Rin swam carefully into his and Gou's shared bedroom in the giant coral home they lived in, which was more like a paolace than "house" like the other sharks lived in. Anyway, he swam in, and opening the giant door, saw his father's giant figure waiting for him on his bed. The boy, not really knowing what the whole deal was about, as he had just heard from his mother that his father was waiting for him in his room, got scared of the sight, as he immediately thought he was in truble again. He carefully swam in, and closed the door, staying by it to look at the giant shark-man, whose tail rested almost all the way from the bed to the door.

The black-haired man looked Rin dead in the eyes, his expression stoic, which made the younger one shiver in fear. Often, sharks disciplined their young by biting, or slapping with their tails on their children's human bodies, but Rin had never experienced such discipline before, but he now at this moment thought he would, and the fear grew ever greater when his father motioned for him to come over to the bed.

"Rin, I need to talk to you about a situation that is worrying both me and your mother." Toraichi started, looking his son in his red eyes as he gently kept his smaller tail swinging to stand still on the spot. Rin tried to look away, kinda ashamed to be spoken to this formally, but it was like that when he was in trouble. The giant man sighed and looked at him while his eyes softened.

"It's about Gou's and your games."

Rin blinked as he heard his sister's name, and immediastely tried to recall a moment where he could have been a bit harsh to her, or a moment she could have been hurt at all. Not recalling any, he looked at his father with a puzzled look. "What about our games...? I romise, I try and not be too wilsd with her, and making sure he doesn't get hurt!" the magenta-haired boy called out, almost panicked in defending himself. The giant megalodon-type man raised his hand to halt his son to calm him, and smiled slightly.

"Rin, relax, I'm not isciplining you. I want you to start looking after Gou and make sure she doesn't get teased anymore." he stated, before furrowing his dark eyebrows again. Rin ensed up immediately at it. Toraichi sighed, realizing his son may be scared of him. Dear god, what kind of image has he set of himself in his son's eyes?

"Please make sure your sister is not being bullied, or left out. She's come home so many times lately crying, and It hurts me to see my daughter sad, do you understand that, Rin?" he asked, and the magenta-haired boy nodded at him. He too hated seeing his sister sad, but he had never really noticed she was crying when she had swam had seen something the time they played sharfish frisbee, but she hadn't said anything, so he hadn't bothered to ask. He now realized he had to start keeping her close, and check her always that she was having fun. After all, he was the oldest. and he waned to make his father proud!

"I'll make sure to check on her Dad!" he exclaimed, smiling widely, and Toraichi smiled too at him before getting up, carefully moving his giant fin to not knock something over in the room. Rin smiled widely at his father and swam into his bed to rest, as he had just come back from a game again. Toraichi moved so he rested over Rin and looked at him.

"Tell your sister that when you see her, and I'll talk to youer mother about this." the black-haired man smiled before swimming out and closing the door behind him. Rin silently clutched his pillows, furrowing his brown in concentration and decided then to make sure his sister was priotected, happy, and most of all, not bullied. He'd attack anyone who called his sister a name, pointed at her, or even nipped at her. With that in mind, Rin fell asleep, way too early. The parents didn't bother to wake him up, and soon enough, Gou followed him to bed.

In the middle of the night though, Rin woke up, realizing it was all quiet, and being a curious shark, Rin suddenly felt the need to explore the reef in the middle of the night, something he'd never done before. Quickly fixing his bed, he started sowly swimming towards the door, and had almost opened it whebn he felt a small hand grab him.

His fin almost smacked Gou away from him, in fear he was caught by someone, but aseeing as it was just her, he relaxed, until the older brother-instincts kicked in, and Rin immediaterly glared at the little girl, whose big eyes looked at wim curiosly.

"Onii-chan, why are you awake...? Mommy and daddy are still asleep.." she whispered, and let go of her brother, staying next to him. Rin quickly hushed her, and looked out the open door to check that no one was outside it to guard them. Seeing the coast clear, he swam out, and little Gou followed himm, demanding an answer to her question. Rin sighed slightly before leaning closer to her.

"I want to swim out. And see the rest of the reef at night, and more specifically... the hammerheads' lair." she whispered, and Gou's red eyes shot up in fear. The children had been warned not to mess with the hammerheads, as they had long ago been banished to be socializing with the rest of the shark-types, after a betrayal that had caused alot of sharks to be killed by the humans, and almost the entire tiger-shark family to lose their children. The hammerheads now were seen as traitors, and all of the adults warned their children that going near them woukld cause their deaths.

"But onii-chan, Mommy and daddy told us to never see the hammerheads! We'll get in trouble!" Gou almost shouted in fear, but Rin just covered her mouth and hushed her once again.

"Calm down, I'm just gonna see what the lair looks like.." he whispered and Gou whimpered, clinging to her brother,. and Rin was almost about to use force to get her to go back when he remembered his promise to his father: Never leave Gou alone.

"You can come with me." he whispered, and Gou blinked, realizing that she was being allowed to go too. Then all her worries of the terribly deed they were about to commit. Rin smiled widely at her, and pinky swore that they were gonna come back home before mom and dad even woke up and realized they were gone, and they'd not get in trouble.

Gou nodded, suddenly excited at the idea, and before they even had second thoughts, headed out, and into the giant reef, over to the hamerheads' dreaded lair, which was so forbidden to see or swim to that you could be exiled yourself for disobeying such a rule.


	3. Chapter 3: hammerheads are not nice

**Quick author's note here-**

**This chapter is VERY GOREY, as mentions of blood, and child abuse/discipline is mentioned, so for those with weak stomachs, or are triggered, this is a warning to not go no if you can't handle that stuff.**

**I want no reviews about Rin's or Sousuke's parents being too cruel. Read on and if you don't think they deserved it, then please come up with a better idea.**

**also I wuld kindly say i do NOT support child abuse, But discipline, and if these were my kids, I wouldn't just kiss them to sleep and not punish them. So once again, warning: DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU ARE TRIGGERED BY DISCIPLINE IN THE FORM OF WHIPPING.**

**Also reember that these are not humans, so their form of discipline does not have to follow ours.**

**and with that, thank you.**

* * *

><p>Sousuke wasn't that into pulling jokes, or even socializing with troublemakers, but being the Son of the Megalodon-man's personal bodyguard, kind of made him having to socialize once or twice with Rin, but of course those few times had been fun, and so Sousuke had been turned into Rin's one best friend, and Rin's only friendly friend. All the other shark-type children were rude, and miscievious, but Sousuke, being a whale shark, and living with two whale shark-types as parents, was raised to be kind and gentle.<p>

But of course, with Rin, being kind and respectful was impossible. He just got in too much trouble, and Rin was always the one to cause it, and drag Sousuke along. Being just a few months older, he had the responsibility of the boy, but that didn't mean he was a whipping boy exactly.

But when Rin randomly snuck to Sousuke's home, and knocked on his bedroom door further down his hallway, Sousuke immediately went "Oh god what now?" and before Rin would literally break in, he opened it quietly so he wouldn't wake his parents.

Seeing what he saw outside wanted him to ask so many questions: Why were both shark siblings outside his bedroom door, why were Rin even allowing Gou to join in, and what made Rin grin that way. It smelled bad and Sousuke just looked like he wanted to slam the doors shut on their noses and go back to bed.

"What are we doing, why is Gou here and howe much trouble are we gonna get in?" he deadpanned, and Rin just took a finger to his lips to hush him, and before Sousuke even could blink, he was following the two siblings to a place he KNEW was somewhere they weren't supposed to be.

"Rin.. please don't tell me this is where I think it is.." Sousuke whispered to the older sibling who was holding onto Gou as she swam carefully behind. Rin just grinned at his friend and nodded. "The hammerhead lair. You've been curious about it too, Sousuke, don't lie!" He grinned and swam further, with his friend and sister close behind. The darkhaired whale shark sighed, but followed. It was no use to tell Rin to change his mind.

"We're not gonna actually go in... right?" he whispered as he looked at the giant place they had arrived at. Even Gou started to seem unsure, but was stuck holding her brother's hand.

Rin just grinned and swam in, and his sister followed obediently, and Sousuke just sighed and swam after. He could always say Rin threatened to bite him if they got caught.

He couldn't even finish the sentence before the hairs on his neck stood up. He KNEW that shadow wasn't coming from any of the three children, so he quickly swam over to Rin and Gou and started to force them to swim thrashed, but stopped when he saw a giant shadow forwards, in front of him, and Gou was screaming.

Looking up, was a giant man, with half his body resembling that of a hammerhead, brown, and white, but his hair was as dark as Sousuke's, and his eyes were a dark brown, almost black color. His figure was gigantic- well, it didn't compare with Rin's father, but to the three much smaller children, he was a giant.

Gou started crying, Rin looked terrified, and Sousuke was praying for his life. The man in front of them slowly wagged his giant fin as he smirked at the three of them, his teeth sharper than any of the kids, as Neither Rin or Gou had gotten the teeth yet. Sousuke, being a whale shark, was doomed to never get them. The three children regretted this right now, and Rin vowed that if he survived, he'd never sneak out again.

The man in front of him smirked evilly at them, and trying to touch Gou with his large hand juts made Rin push her back and away, as she kept crying.

"Douika, what's this?" a woman's voice appeared, and the three kids parked up, trying to find the voice. Their hearts sunk when they realized it was a hammerhead female. The woman just smirked as she looked at the kids, her red hair swaying in the water, and her body was tanned, and almost as big as the man in front of her. her eyes were strikingly green, greener than seaweed, and her smile looked almost twisted, like she had lockjaw or something.

Rin was crying at this stage, as he saw even more sharks come up behind the couple. Sousuke kept looking nervously at the exit of the lair as he regretted joining in on this more than ever. He could be in bed, sleeping, and not about to be eaten alive.

The woman suddenly went straight forward, her teeth bared, and went straight for Gou, and as she screamed, and Rin screamed, neither of them daring to move, the woman tackled both kids to the sandy floor of the lair.

"Leave us alone!" Rin was screaming, and repeating over and over as Gou was a sobbing mess and Sousuke screamed, trying to swim around so no one would be able to catch him, and so he could find some rocks to throw at her. The hammerhead woman's smile became even more twisted than before, her green eyes were as big as her head almost as she started laughing, biting down on the small girl's fin.

Gou started screaking in pain, as more and more of the hammerheads started attacking the kids. Sousuke was desperately throwing rocks around, and Rin was too scared to move, shielding his sister from the attacks, getting large bites himself. Blood poured out of both his arms, and fin and Gou's bite was extreme, and blood was just flooding out of her as she screamed in pain.

"Leave us alone! Just go away!" Sousuke was screaming as he kept throwing rocks while being chased around the small place, him bleeding badly from bites as well. He felt weak, and realized he was bleeding out, until he suddenly saw a giant shadow. 'This is is...' he thought to himself, as he felt himself fall to the ground. 'this is the end..'

But surprisingly, he wasn't weaten alive, nor was Rin and Gou screaming, and the shadow wasn't attacking them. It was attacking the hammerheads. The redheaded sibklings just stared in awe at their savious, and Sousuke weakly looked, and saw a giant tail, bigger than he'd ever seen on another shark. Then he recognized the fin, as big as the lair, a lot similar to that of a great white , but a lot bigger, and a bit different, and had lots of battle scars.

Toraichi had been hysteric when he had swam around, looking for the three children that had been reported as missing, and he hadn't thought at all about that they might have been in danger at all, and most of all, not life-threatening danger. But the smell of blood was so great every shark that was awake could smell it, and all worried. Who was bleeding? would they die? Toraichi and his wife had panicked, and both had started searching, together with the whale-shark family.

Seeing thew blood made them even more worried. It was com,ing from the hammerhead lair, and with three children missing, and danger appearing at those dangerous sharks, had made the adults almost pass out. But Toraichi had demanded the whale-shark fathwer to take care of their wives while he swam in to stop whatever was going on ni there, but had he planned on seeing his own children, almost eaten, and dying, and Sousuke, attacking the giant sharks with rocks, while also being bitten dangerously? No, and he had immediately gotten to attack for the danger that threatened his family.

"Leave My kids alone!" he roared out as he attacked hammerhead after hammerhead, ignoring that his children were watching. After the lair being almost full of blood, and it sipping out into the world, and the children engulfed in it, he finally bit down the last hammerhead to death as he called out for the three other adults for help.

His own wife screamed when she saw her babies dying, and grabbing a hold of Them both, carried them both out while Sousuke's father was trying to shake him back to life. As he didn't stir, the woman started sobbing, and Toraichi picked up the boy, as the four of them swam back, the worried white shark-mother was desperately covering her kids' wounds with her hands. Toraichi was desperatelty trying to keep Sousuke from bleeding out, and the other shark families all had woken up to aid in the rescue of them.

Almost four hours later, Sousuke woke up again, and looked around. He was in his own bed again, and he was alive. Had the adventure been a terrifying nightmare? he stopped thinking when he heard an angry male scream loudly outside his door, and was about to swim over when the pain in his fin stopped him.

The scream erupting from him stopped the male outside from shouting, and for his mother and father to rush in. He was so happy to see them that tears were forming. He immediately went to hug her, and she just wrapped her hands tightly around his uupper body, her eyes being just as a mess as his own. Her black hair swayed around him, and he was just so happy to be in her arms, he never wanted her to let go, and stop saying "My little baby, my little darling boy.." at him. The other whale-shark man sighed in relief as he followed suit as his wife, and hugged their son.

"Mother... father... I-I thought I'd never see you again" he cried out, and smiled at them both, feeling his body being hugged again, by stronger arms, meaning it was his father that now embraced him. Looking around, he saw the megalodon-type man smile at him, with Rin next to him, wincing more and more every time he moved his fin.

Sousuke gasped as he realized Rin had a large red mark across his cheek, and his eyes were red from crying, but mostly he noticed his fin being lined with large red lines across it, that weren't bleeding, but seemed to make him extremely uncomfortable. His arms and fin were wrapped in a tight seaweed bandage.

"W-we're not dead...?" he managed to ask after his parents finally let gop of him, as he inspected his own seaweed bandage around his fin. It hurt, and blood was still flowing from it slightly, but not much at all, and not enough to create a very big red line of blood around them.

Toraichi was the one who answered him as he swam forward, and carefully sat down on Sousuke's bed, staring him down darkly, and looking like he was about to smack Sousuke's cheek too, like Rin's. He didn't though, and sighed.

"No, thank god I got to you three in time.. Gou was close, and Rin was almost a goner, and you were on the verge of death when I finally got you out of there.." he explained and sent a dark glare at his son, who looked away. Sousuke sighed, and he felt a pang of guilt.

"I-I'm sorry I didn't stop them... I could have made this not happen, I'm the oldest.." he sarted, but The giant man put his hand on his smaller shoulder, and smiled slightly.

"You all did a very horrible thing, which I hope you won't repeat, for your own good, but you cannot blame yourself" he looked back at Rin again, who swam forward, carefully as his entire body hurt. The small magenta haired boy smiled widely at Sousuke, trying to not show the pain he was in. Sousuke frowned a he looked at his red cheek and the whipping lines across his friend's body.

"Both you and Rin will have to stay inside of your rooms for a very long time, and Gou will be sleeping with me and her mother from now on." Toraichi continued, and Looked at the small dark haired boy, who just nodded. They deserved so much more, but he realized Rin had already gotten his punishment, and figured he was gonna get it after the Megalodon and his son went back to their rooms. Rin refused to talk, and Toraichi got up and swam carefully over to him, and put a hand carefully on his son's back, to not hurt any iof the lash wounds. Without another word, Rin was led out and into his own room, and Sousuke's mother swam forward, and kissed Sousuke's forehead before ordering him up and to bend over his bed.

Although the whipping hurt Sousuke greatly, he knew he deserved every lash his father gave him, and after a painful fifteen minutes, he was done and ordered to sleep. He didn't mind going to bed at four in the morning, he just wanted to sleep, as his entire body hurt now, and just lying down felt amazing right now. His mother carefully placed the covers over his fin, careful not to touch the lashes before leaving the room, and Sousuke's room was silent as the boy fell asleep, planning on not leaving the dreamland for days if he could.


End file.
